Backstreet abortions rife
2004-09-08 11:58
Cape Town - Since the abortion legislation was introduced in 1997, deaths among pregnant women have decreased by 2.5%, the health department reported to parliament on Tuesday.
Doctor Loyiso Mpuntsha, head of the department's healthcare unit for mothers, told the portfolio committee on health that this Act gave women a better chance at life.
"The legislation helped mothers to obtain safer abortions and they no longer need to turn to back-street abortions," she said.
"Those type of abortions often had serious repercussions for those women's health," she added.
This was the reason why many women who underwent abortions had chronic problems with their reproductive organs afterwards, Mpuntsha said.
An average of 42 000 abortions are performed in South Africa every year, Mpuntsha said, but more and more women are making use of this service.
She allayed the fears of anti-abortion activists that women have been asking for abortions left, right and centre after the introduction of this legislation.
"Women see abortion as a last resort. That is why we often get patients who visit health centres nearly too late because they wasted time making up their minds."
Jeanine McGill, spokesperson for Christian View Network, said back-street abortions were still being performed despite the legislation.
"Abortions have become morally acceptable, but because women still do not want to be associated with it, they still go for back-street abortions," McGill said.
She said about 500 women die every year in South Africa after or during legal abortions.